How to choose the right enterprise mobility management tool

Robert L. Mitchell |
Jan. 24, 2014

Consider what's 'good enough' for what you need right now -- but don't neglect the future.

The next step, he says, will be integrating mobile into business process improvement and collaboration. "How do you make a decision without having to go back to the office and fire up an application? That's all rolled into EMM services, and we think over the next year you'll see a huge upsurge in this activity," he says.

Mobility management is gradually moving toward workspace aggregation, where the user has access to the same resources from any endpoint device. For example, Citrix is attempting to provide virtual access with its ShareFile, XenApp, XenMobile and XenDesktop software, and VMware is taking a similar approach.

The goal, DiSabato says, is to integrate virtualization and the user experience "so that when I write an app in Windows and access it on a server with an iPad it goes from keyboard- and mouse-centric to looking like an iOS app. Somewhere between the app and the iPad, a miracle will occur."

But the technology behind workplace aggregation is still evolving, something that companies need to think about before they act. "Implement this now and you'd better have a lot of Maalox handy," DeSabato says.

Given how rapidly mobile technology is moving, Winthrop tells clients to look for a vendor that has the resources and flexibility to adapt quickly to change. The key to choosing the right tool suite, he says is to standardize on an EMM, but "standardize flexibly."